


The Bear

by Nedrika



Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Donkeyskin, Fairy Tale Logic, Fantastical animal abuse, Gen, Rabbitskin, Talking Animals, The Bear - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nedrika/pseuds/Nedrika
Summary: A princess runs away from her overbearing father and lives as a bear in a neighbouring prince's kingdom.An aroace reworking of a fairytale that has many variants: The Bear, Donkeyskin, Rabbitskin, Mossycoat, and Allerleirauh among many others. (I like the Bear version because it has a talking bear and no incest.)





	The Bear

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [roguefaerie (samidha)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samidha/pseuds/roguefaerie) in the [GenAndAroPrompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GenAndAroPrompts) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> I prefer no archive warnings apply but since this is fairytales do whatever you would like in terms of violence or character death--I prefer the originals with more darkness. Any fairytale retold with less to no romance or "romance."
> 
> Original tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bear_(fairy_tale)

Once upon a time a King who loved his daughter. So great was his love that it had consumed him, for his wife had died and his daughter was so close to her in appearance that it brought up upon him a great fear of losing her as her mother had been lost.

In order to keep her safe she was ordered into the highest room of the keep, and once there the door was to be locked in order to keep all danger from her. Of course, it also kept her from the world, and so she was desolate and alone all day unless it was the daily visits from her father, ,her governess had lessons or the maids were ordered to deliver her food through the hatch in the wall; even her ladies-in-waiting were denied her. 

The princess hated the monotony of her days, but above that she hated the loss of her freedom. She had been bright and eager to explore, and had loved learning the secrets of the kingdom and its inhabitants; now she could but look out from her tall window at the specks of people below her and imagine their secrets. 

There were plenty of diversions in her chambers but they did little so very little against the growing restlessness and how desperately lonely she was becoming, so that one day, some months into her confinement, she found herself complaining at length at her governess. 

She expected the governess to shake her head and order her back to studying the Classics, but instead she had listened attentively, for she was a witch and had designed her appointment in order to help in this moment.

“My dear, you can be free of this place if you wish it.”

“I do wish it, Mistress, I do. More than anything in the world.”

“Then you must ask your father for what you need to do it. He loves you, that is true, and would do almost anything for you, but freedom is the one thing he will never give you. You must grasp at it yourself and not wait for his permission.”

“But if I am never to be let out from here what could I possibly ask for that would of use?” she asked, the faint light of hope beginning to shine through the despair that had crept upon her during the long months.

The governess gave a conspiratorial smile.

“Ask him for a wheelbarrow, a spurtle, and the skin of the great bear he keeps in the banqueting hall and is so proud of; he would never refuse you these. Then you must wait until our next appointment and I can make them useful for your escape. I understand that you have questions but there are no answers that would sate you; you must trust me. After you leave I will have no more help to offer and you must make your own way in the wide world.”

The princess did trust her, and asked her father for the gifts later that day when he came to her as usual to see that she was well. He was surprised at the unusual requests but gave in easily, rubbing her hair and laughing as though she was far younger than she was.

By the time the governess returned for her appointment the next day the best wheelbarrow the groundskeepers had in sturdy and well kept oak, a fine and strong fresh-carved pine spurtle, and the glossy, full, and jet black pelt that her father had hunted mere weeks before her mother had died and she had been sequestered away. 

The princess was enraptured as she watched her governess-witch circle the two offerings and nod sagely. Then she took a hazelwood wand from within her robes and touched the wheelbarrow; once, twice, thrice, and then it began to quiver although nothing moved it. 

“This wheelbarrow will now take you wherever you would wish to go, as long as you ask it. It is bound to you and will answer no others, behaving as a perfectly ordinary tool.”

The governess-witch knelt then by the bears head and touched it with her wand, causing the bear to sneeze where it lay stretched out across the floor. 

“This bear skin will now be a disguise for you so perfect that nobody will suspect that you are not a bear, and you can hide from the inevitable search that your father will make for you.”

Lastly she touched the spurtle, and it shone with a beautiful polish.

“And this shall now be a wand of your own, so that if you should need another disguise you will have means to make one. Be warned, however, that it can only change your attire and not the features of your face.”

The princess thanked her whole-heartedly, and with tears in her eyes she put the wand in her bosom and pulled the hide around her shoulders. It shimmered and slithered shut until she was standing on two legs but in all other aspects a bear, and she turned about to admire herself in the mirror before climbing into the wheelbarrow, not bothering to take any of the other rich but impractical trinkets she owned. 

She tried to think of somewhere to be but nothing came to her other than ‘away’, and then she was off, the wheelbarrow bursting out of the window at incredible speed. The glass passed by her without injury and she caught sight of the witch waving farewell at her as she barrelled out into the air. It was a long way down and she was sure that they would never make it to the ground in one piece but the barrow took the landing smoothly and then the world was a blur of greens browns and yellows for some time before it slowed to a halt in a quiet and lush forest. She dismounted onto shaking legs and thanked the barrow, tucking it in a small cluster of bushes before taking off to explore her surroundings.

Before long a hunting party came into earshot, led by the prince of the country she had arrived in. They had not seen her yet and she still wished to figure out her situation a little more before revealing herself to those who could be hostile to her true identity, so she hunkered down in the dip of a nearby brook. The dogs scented the bear suit and made to attack her, and it was only when fear drove her to stand on two legs and held up her front paws in a mime of surrender, growling a rough “please!” that he called the dogs to heel. 

“Please,” she called in a voice that came from her mouth as half syllables and half guttural grumble. “Don’t attack me, I have done and mean no harm to any of you.”

The prince and his retinue regarded her with awe and suspicion. After she stayed put long enough to have proven herself trustworthy and they had processed somewhat the fact that a bear had asked them for clemency, the prince began to approach her.

“Would you come back with us? You are a marvel, and I would like for you to stay at my castle.”

“I would love to,” she replied, the courtly manners of her upbringing taking the bear’s body into a deep curtsy that once again stunned her onlookers. Already she was far beyond normal bear behaviours, and so she let herself be carried through the motion without resistance and resigned herself to being a talking bear for the time being, until a better plan revealed itself to her. 

“Would you wait here for a moment,” she growled, and they allowed her it, the curiosity plain on their faces. The barrow was removed from its hiding place in the shrubs and she rode it back to their party, causing a round of excited cheers and gleams that she recognised as greed in several pairs of eyes around the group.

“This is my own magic,” she said to fend off thieving. “I make the wheels move, otherwise it is a normal wheelbarrow.” Those who had been looking on in envy seemed to have been pacified, although some worry remained that they would come for her skin next. 

They made an odd procession as they made their way out of the forest and across the fields back to the prince’s home that glittered white marble in the distance. Once the silhouette of the tall turrets became clearer she knew them from the books in her room, and realised that she was in the neighbouring country from her own.

The horses, riders, dogs and bear trailed through the high gate until the group diverged and she was urged to follow the prince up the grand staircase to meet the Queen.

Her Highness was most surprised when her son approached her flanked by an enormous black bear, but was overcome when the bear stood on its hind legs and bowed - an easier movement with the new weight distribution of the ursine body - and then asked for room and board.

“I would happily work in order to earn my keep, as I have no other place to be. Being a bear I am not accustomed to housework, but I am a fast learner and very eager to be of use.”

“Of course,” the Queen said, unsure of how else to answer a wild animal asking her for honest employment.

She asked for a humble room and was given a small cleaned out cupboard with a bed of straw that was easier to mount with her stubby legs than a bed frame. None of the other staff wished to sleep in the same room as a bear and so the space was her own, and this time it was comforting to be in a room herself without the knowledge of guards outside and the door unbarred.

Daily household tasks proved to be a challenge with her ungainly build, but eventually she devised ways to work around the odd proportions of her bear skin, and the magical strength that the disguise gave her meant that there were many manual tasks that the staff eventually came to depend on her for.

The prince and the Queen came by often to see the bear on their staff, and would remark as she improved over long weeks, eventually being one of the better workers in the castle. When the royal family had guests they would often brag of their unusual bear maid, and would bring her out to be inspected and to sweep the immaculate floors of the hall for them, and then would be asked questions that she would answer as though she was indeed a bear that had decided to leave the forest and live as a human.

Sometimes the dignitaries would speak of her father and his desperate search for his daughter, and would give out her description to pass around the kingdom. She was conflicted to hear those stories, for while she liked her new life and working for her keep and had hated her confinement, she knew her father loved her and had meant no harm, and in her heart she did still love him. She would not return, but when he had calmed enough and she could be safe in her new identity she would write to him and let him know that she had survived. With luck on her side her new identity would not involve living in the bear suit forever, for the tanned creases on the hide chafed at her terribly when she would sweat in the thick pelt.

News came to the castle one day that a neighbouring kingdom was to have a beautiful ball and their prince had been invited to attend. He was talking over this news with his mother in the kitchens as they watched the bear drag kindling to the grate. The thought of a night of lively dancing in bright and airy rooms made her nostalgic, for she had loved to dance and to meet and talk to the new faces at balls while she was still a princess. It would be safe enough, for who would expect a runaway princess to be dancing with nobles?

“I would like to come to the ball with you, please let me go and dance,” she said in her deep bear-voice, and the prince laughed at the idea.

“You need to remember that you are a bear, and palaces are not circuses,” he said to her, and kicked her from the room.

The sting in her ribs was not deterrent enough, and once the prince had boarded his magnificent carriage she sought out the Queen and asked again if she would be kind enough to let her bear go to the ball if she was quiet and hid so nobody would know she was there, and the Queen was kind and allowed it.

The bear galloped to where her wheelbarrow was wedged into her cupboard room and pulled it free and rode it out into the woods beyond the castle gate. The bear skin was slow and sticky to remove as it always was when she was alone, and then she stood in her own clothes. She pulled the spurtle from its hiding place between the boards of the wheelbarrow and touched it to her breast, and from where it touched out to the furthest hems her stained and tattered dress changed and re-wove itself into an evening gown that glowed white as if made of moonbeams. 

With a desperate trust in the magic of her governess she touched the wand then to the oak barrow, and it began to slowly warp and snap and grow into an ornate carriage, two brown horses growing from the wood and whinnying restlessly. She climbed swiftly into the carriage and thought of the nearby castle that was hosting the party. The carriage started off at impossible speeds so that when she arrived she found she had beaten the prince there, and with a confidence born of years of teaching she walked through the guards with such poise that they assumed she was meant to be there and never challenged her. 

The evening was perfect, and the effortlessness of dancing on her own legs and laughing in her own voice buoyed her so much that she did not notice the prince entering the party, seeing her through the crowd and immediately falling for her. She was still in good spirits when he approached her, so when she was asked for a dance she simply laughed and held out her hand for him to take. He asked her for another once the set was done, but she declined him with a polite shake of her head and took another hand that was already proffered, not feeling his eyes on her for the rest of the night.

Once the night was done she hurried out of the ballroom before anyone could catch her and ask more of her, bundling herself into her wheelbarrow-carriage and back home to be changed into a wheelbarrow and a bear before anyone could follow her. The prince had mounted his horse as soon as he could to be after her, but it was too fast for him and was soon out of sight.

When he came back to the castle the next day the only subject he would talk about was the ball, and he spoke to all that would listen of the beautiful woman he had danced with, of her grace and style, and how although they had not said anything to each other during the dance he had known from the instant he had laid eyes on her that she was meant to be his. The princess saw this as a fanciful notion; she had danced with strangers all her life and never felt any sort of connection beyond the fleeting with her partners. This prince she worked with must have quite the romantic imagination to have such a momentous outcome from the short span of a single dance. 

The thought made her snicker as she went about her duties, and when the prince heard her he slapped her hard on the shoulder and drove her from the room again, cursing the bear and its poor understanding of the human heart, the snicker turning to guffaws as she left.

There was to be another dance that night in yet another lord’s palace, for it was now the season for evening festivities. The prince was dressed, ready and out in his carriage almost as soon as the invitation arrived, determined not to miss any chance offered at meeting his mysterious stranger.

Again the princess went to the Queen, and asked to be allowed the evening to go and observe the humans and their lovely dancing again, for nobody had a seen a bear the night before and she was confident that she could hide just as well again. The Queen smiled fondly and told her she was welcome to the evening.

Off she went, this time in a conjured gown that shimmered with the light of the sun in the gloom, and when she descended into the ballroom the prince saw her at once and hurried to ask her hand in a dance. It seemed strange that he would so quickly abandon his great love from the previous night, but it made sense to her that a heart easily won could be just as easily swayed, so she gave him her hand and let him lead her to the floor. He was a sweet dancer, but the intensity in his watching her proved unsettling, and while he attempted to engage her in conversation clashed with her desire for anonymity and so she kept her lips shut and smiled through his talk. 

With the dance over she was offered the hand of another, which she took gratefully, although the prince was slow to release her glove. The next set was a marked improvement when she could focus on the happiness that dancing brought her, the jaunt of the music and the pleasant bubbling of laughter in the room. While the prince asked for a dance as often as propriety allowed she had the pick of the ball and danced with some of the most accomplished dancers of the realms, her feet light as air as they spun and lifetimes away from the heavy clubbing footsteps she took as a bear, and her soul was happy.

When she mounted her barrow-carriage in the small hours of the morning it was out of the corner of her eye that she spotted the prince lingering behind her in a light carriage fitted with his strongest horses, and when she asked to go home and quickly out of the window she saw the prince breaking into a gallop to follow her. He drove his horses fast and long, but then the carriage came to a huge river chasm where there was no bridge, and it drove straight between the two cliffs as though the road was as clear as day and he was forced to abandon the chase, thoughts of magic running fast through his head.

That day the prince was yet louder in his declarations of love, saying to all that would listen that he had found her again and she was so fair that even the rules of nature prostrated themselves at her feet and allowed her and hers to fly through the night sky unaided. At last the princess caught the notion that she had been the object this entire time, and her heart sank.

“If this is true,” she said to herself, “then either I must persuade him to end the suit or both my days of quiet work and nights of carefree dancing are going to be spent hounded by his affection.”

Then the absurdity of the situation assailed her and she could not help her laughter, “Whatever would the prince think if his graceful love of a dancer turned out to be his bear-maid from the kitchens?” and for ruining the prince’s lovesick mood with her laughter she was subjected to a barrage of foul curses that only made her humour lighter and proved to make the prince yet angrier as she was shuffled out of the dining hall into the kitchen again.

The third night was again a celebration, and the prince departed for it as though he were going to war, the fire bright in his eyes. The Queen sought out the bear this time to give her permission, and the bear nearly toppled her over with gratitude for the gesture. 

She entered the ballroom in a gown of starlight, determined to enjoy the night as much as possible if it were to be the last dance she would have in a while. Again the prince joined her instantly, and asked her to dance, which she did not have the heart to refuse. As they swirled around the floor it was a trial to look him in the eye and not answer his questions, and the steps came heavily to her. He had convinced himself of so much off nothing more than a dance, and the shadow of her father’s possessive and assumptive actions loomed large. Still she said nothing to him, not trusting herself not to growl at his testing of her patience. There were times throughout the night where he could not sustain his claim to her and she could dance with others, but the mood was ruined and all she could think of when dancing with the other dignitaries was how he would be skulking around the floor and waiting for her to be free again, when the pity that gnawed at her would lead her to walking back to the music with him. 

When the ball was over she did not even check whether she was going to be followed, sure in the knowledge that he would be following her, and he was; saddled this time on his fastest mare he raced after her and almost caught up to her, until the entire carriage, horses and all, took a straight line into a lake. He watched nervously from the bank until he saw it break the surface clear on the other side to resume its journey on land. 

He made his way home, mind full of the beautiful dancer and how sadly and sweetly she had smiled at him. She had been too distracted even to notice as he had slid a ring on her smallest finger as they danced, a small token but a gesture that had brought some measure of release to the torment that raged in him. It was dawn by the time he made it back to the castle, and his head hung low as he approached his mother as she waited for him at the gatehouse.

“I love her so much and yet I cannot get her to talk to me, and I know neither her name nor her parentage, and don’t know where to find her.” The bear muttered to itself from where it lingered at his mother’s feet; she had taken a great liking to it of late but now the novelty of the situation had worn off he had tired of it.

“I am weary from the ball and the ride home, and so am retiring for the day. Bear, I am done with your ridicule for affairs you do not understand. Get me some soup from the kitchens, but don’t meddle with it.”

She was unsure what he thought his bear would do to his soup, but set off obediently so as to not open herself up to another kick. Her mind was running through the possible outs, and had decided that the best way forward would be the truth, and to salvage what she could from the situation. If nothing was to be gained she would start again elsewhere; she had learned enough about real work to manage without the facade of the bear suit, which would do well as a disguise if her father ever found her. Or, and her heart sank her, if the prince sent out for her. She had found a ring on her finger when on the ride home that morning, and she knew instantly who it had been from. She could only hope that his infatuation would be easily broken once he understood.

The soup was hot in her paws, and the kernel of an idea came to her, so she set it down and carefully wound her hand free of the paw and suit, sliding the ring from her hand so it dropped to the bottom of the bowl before re-securing herself and going on her way. She waited patiently in the corner of the room for the bowl as he slowly supped at it, gloom in every muscle of his body and his mind miles away with his wonderful partner, until his spoon clattered against something metallic and he was jolted from his dream. He spooned out the ring he had left with her that morning, and his mind raced to think of what it meant. 

At length he caught sight of the magic bear in the corner of the room, who was so bad at being a bear but seemed to know humans so well, and the image of it began to overlap with his magical love who never spoke.

“You are not what you seem, would you show me who you truly are?”

He had spoken more softly than she had anticipated, but she obeyed, and let the bear-skin fall from her shoulders so that she stood before him still clothed in her starlight gown, and his eyes grew wide.

“It was you,” he said, and fell to his knees. “I have loved you from the first moment I saw you at the ball, and would have you for my wife.”

“But you do not know me beyond my face, and while I know you better I do not love you. I know how you are with your servants, and have felt your fists and feet. I wish to mislead you no further, but I cannot give you what you want and return your ring to you. I came to this country in flight from my father, whom you know, and so you have heard my story in the reports and search parties that have come through here regularly. 

“My father loves me in his way, and I love him in my own, but his love was suffocating. I wish to be free to live after my own fashion, with nobody deciding my fate for me and no ideal to live up to. I fear that you have built an ideal for me, one that I have no urge to inhabit, and so I must ask my leave.”

The prince slumped to the floor, not looking at her any more as his mind caught up with the fact that his love was the bear, and that the bear had rejected him. 

“Go,” he said at length, and she left without another word. She told her story and made her excuses to the Queen, who was surprised to hear the voice of her bear come sweetly to her from the mouth of a maiden but bore it well, and they cried together at their parting. She set the bear-maiden on her way with supplies and a small bag of coin, for she would take no more, which they loaded carefully into her wheelbarrow and then they said their goodbyes, the Queen promising that there would be no hunt for her sent out from their kingdom and that the prince would understand in time.

The barrow brought her all across the land, and she lived many lives in many guises, each different to the last and each as fascinating to her. Village dances brought her as much joy as the large ballrooms of the land, and she learned to smelt and sew as well as sweep, but as time went on her thoughts brought her back to her old life, all those years ago, and so the wheelbarrow trundled off in the direction of her homeland. 

Her old governess was surprised to see the princess she had rescued so long ago on her doorstep but she welcomed her in with open arms, and taught her everything she knew about both the mundane and arcane. They went on many adventures and rescues across the world, and the bear-maiden lived happy and free until the end of her days.


End file.
